Heretical Fishing: A Cozy Guide to Annoying the Cults, Outsmarting the Fish, and Alienating Oneself cover art

Heretical Fishing: A Cozy Guide to Annoying the Cults, Outsmarting the Fish, and Alienating Oneself

Heretical Fishing, Book 1

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Heretical Fishing: A Cozy Guide to Annoying the Cults, Outsmarting the Fish, and Alienating Oneself

Written by: Haylock Jobson
Narrated by: Heath Miller
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About this listen

A world abandoned by the gods, mystifying cosmic forces, unimaginable power for those willing to ascend, and a hero who would rather . . . go fishing???

When summoned to a fantastical world and granted powers by a broken System, most freshly minted protagonists would strap on their big-boy boots and get ready for their stats to start climbing. But Fischer isn't like most MCs. In fact, he doesn't want to be a hero at all.

Fame? Fortune? Power? He had enough of all that in his old life. Discovering forbidden fishing techniques and petting every cute animal that comes within scritching distance? Now that's a good time.

Unfortunately for Fischer, cosmic forces rarely care for mortal feelings. He's hounded on all sides by inept cults, conspiring nobles, and more magical misunderstandings than those of a preteen relationship. Even his dutiful pet crab is firing energy blades like an anime antagonist.

So grab your fishing rod and a good snack, and pet your dog for me. The catch of a lifetime awaits!

The first volume of the laugh-out-loud LitRPG adventure series—a #1 Rising Star on Royal Road with over three million views—now available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Audible!

©2024 Paige Haylock Jobson (P)2024 Podium Audio
Action & Adventure Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Outdoor Fishing Paranormal Witty Feel-Good Funny City
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What the critics say

“I can’t think of a single story I’d rather get truck-kun’d (truck-kunned?) into than [that of] the vivid, lush world portrayed in Heretical Fishing, especially if I can hang out with Fischer and his gang. . . . The best book I’ve read this year.” —Matt Dinniman, author of Dungeon Crawler Carl

What listeners say about Heretical Fishing: A Cozy Guide to Annoying the Cults, Outsmarting the Fish, and Alienating Oneself

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Fun, novel approach to a stagnant format

Generally not a fan of cultivation approaches to the Litrpg genre, but this was a huge breath of fresh air. Whether that was Hobson’s great treatment of Fischer, the main character (sorry if I’ve spelt that wrong, I’m drunk rn), Miller’s amazing narration (he’s seriously the best) or a combination of both, this take on the genre was fantastic. Not since He Who Fights Monsters have I read or listened to a book that could make me literally laugh out loud and this book managed that many times. If you’re using credits, it’s a no-brainer. If you’re not, putting $15 (Canadian, don’t know how much it costs the rest of you) is a great investment. Your dog walks or commutes will be better from this great story.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Heretical Fail-son

A man with infinite money and time dies to be reincarnated to... infinite money and time. honestly his life doesnt change much from being in the fantasy world other than no one knowing him but he also could've just moved to vietnam for the same experience.

main characters premise aside it's still a better listen than most reincarnation in a fantasy land audiobooks on here. worth a credit at least.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Fun read

Nothing new to the genre, but a fun and comfy story that would be appropriate for any age.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent. Silly. Light hearted

There isn’t really a “big bad” instead several “moderate baddies” who are all about the lvl of a home alone villain. It’s just wholesome.

I wish there was some rough evidence of fisher gaining power. There was some trades learned. And I understand avoiding full numbered stats. But I couldn’t say if he ended the book with the same lvl and strength as he started. Or if he increased in strength by a factor of 10. Doesn’t matter. I just wish there’d been some hints on that to Scratch my litrpg itch.

Will certainly get the next books when they come out.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A fun story to listen to.

Very well written, Well Narrated. Will be waiting for the continuation of the story. Will also keep an eye out for mor of the same author.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Scratched an itch that had been plaguing me for sometime.

Awesome book, amazing writing, perfect narrator. It’s beware of chicken but better in my opinion.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Simply wonderful

Even just the first 5 hours or so in, my girlfriend and I are enthralled with the whole experience so far. Shoutout to Alien Food on YouTube for recommending this wonderful adventure so far

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Well, this was a surprise. Absolutely Superb.

Well, never would I ever have picked up a cultivation novel about heretical fishing, but having stumbled upon it and seeing some 20 x 5 Star reviews, I supposed I was up for something different.

This book is so good. I mean…How? How does it make this so interesting?

Well for starters, great characters written really well. An utterly compelling story, I couldn’t put it down. It’s funny, it’s chock full of warm fuzzy moments. It’s audacious, because some outlandish things happen yet it just works. The MC is a great surrogate for the reader who has come from the real world. Through that lens, it’s delivered with humour and interest and perfect amounts of mystery. By Neptunes Salty Sack, it has its own curse word vernacular. Let me touch on narration before going back to the story.

The narrator is of course the same one for HWFWM. Right away, you feel right at home. It’s obvious the story has been written with this narrator in mind, it’s too perfect and written exactly how someone would write it if this Narrator was going to read it. Pop culture references, banter, all of it is just so well done. In fact I found the writing to be very similar in style, in the best possible ways, to the MC writing in the He Who Fights With Monsters, character of Jason Asano, but without all the baggage. But not bogged down by preachy bits and long monologues. But it does share something with that writers style.

The narration is a breath of fresh air. This feels a little like some unintended spiritual successor to HWFWM, and again, I mean that in the best way possible. In both cases the real world still exists. It’s the main character that depart the known world. I’ll avoid spoilers. But man alive, what a great book to listen to.

One of the things I dislike about most Litrpg style books is that the characters are always highly emotionally damaged pre-system-descending. This always leads to this highly self-involved inner-monologuing that sucks the joy out of a character. By extension they never, NEVER! Know how to have a healthy relationship or even talk to women, it’s always something constipating the main character so perhaps the MC can remain in his bubble of mental hardship and do what needs doing. It’s a common trope, but in LITRPG, rarely do you have an MC that is capable of just making friends and is looking to connect honestly and not just because of a common cause or a simple minded desire to kill things. While this book isn’t a LITRPG, that genre and slice of life often have much in common as far as MC’s go. Authors often feel the emotional damage needs to be extreme or spiced up over dramatically to give it weight. Not so in this book. He’s had some things happen, really he grew up in rather cold and unforgiving environment, but instead of making the MC all about the trauma, a big part of why he seeks connection manifests in a healthy way, giving the MC a warm and believable personality despite what his childhood was and not just because of it.

I already cannot wait for book 2. And 3, 4, 5… and so on. I hope you can crank these out because they are fantastic.

I get why it keeps getting 5 stars, it’s because it’s a really great story that draws you in as much as it puts a smile on your face. It weights lightly on the soul. We all need more of that these days.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

it was a wonderful relaxing story that managed to remain interesting

just off of he who fights with monsters i didnt really have high hopes for any book let alone one about fishing in another world but this has been a lovley relaxing book with a fantastic world and characters that i truly enjoyed hearing about. it was interesting and well paced and beautiful writte, not once did i find myself bored with this book. i really do recommend giving heretical fishing a try if your looking for a good relaxing and entertaining story to pass the time

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Really pleasantly surprised!

This book perfectly scratched the itch left in the void since I finished the latest beware of chicken. This was fantastic and worth a credit without question. If you aren’t sure yet get sure cause this is a good one. Relaxing while being exciting and funny. 5 stars is too little to show how pleased I am to have come across this book.

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1 person found this helpful